Music Gear Review: Auralex ProPAD-XL

Auralex's ProPAD and ProPAD-XLstudio monitor platform isolators feature three-layer construction. Your monitors rest on a sheet of hard rubber that is attached to a single sheet of black-painted MDF and then floated on PlatFoam base layer to further isolate and increase damping. These are a premium version of Auralex’s MoPads.

The stylish ProPAD measures 8W x 13D x 2.125-inches H and the larger ProPAD-XL is 19W x 13D x 2.125-inches H. Both include wedges of foam to tilt (up or down) so your monitors’ aim back at you in the listening position.

I received a pair of ProPAD-XL’s and they are wide enough (19-inches) to support both my (vertically placed) Yamaha NS-10M and my Reftone sound cube together side by side. Now that these sets of monitors are not directly resting on my wood monitor shelf, there is no mechanical coupling of the cabinets’ vibration and resonant energy. It is as if the monitors are totally free standing or suspended in air.

Besides elevating my small monitors up 2.125-inches and aiming then directly back at the listening position, the ProPAD-XL’s also adds a finished look to my monitor shelf and improves the view I see all day long from the mixer’s position!

Two Auralex ProPADs sell for $149 MAP while a pair of the ProPAD-XL’s sell for $299 MAP.

BARRY RUDOLPH is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com

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Founded in 1977 on the principle of bridging the gap between “the street and the elite,” Music Connection has grown from a popular print publication into a spectrum of products and services that address the wants and needs of musicians, the music tech community and industry support services.